The Ballad of Big Nothing
by tyrantsandcreampuffs
Summary: x. "...and inside she's giggling because it could only mean one thing. He loves her. And it's a wonderful thing that she loves him, too. And now she understands that there are some things that don't need saying." / AU, humans. #02


Hallo! This is actually my first dw story, so I'm sorry if it's not as good. It's AU, with humans all around! Some quotes are lifted directly from the show, some just made in reference. You'd know, obviously. The 'things to include in this fic' list is at the bottom of the story because it might spoil you or something. Allons-y!

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><p><strong>i.<strong>

He doesn't know how it exactly happened. Until now it still baffles him how one sighting from across the street could change just about everything. In his world, at least—which is in actuality quite limited to a few things. Or maybe just her.

In any case, this is something out of the ordinary even for his imagination. These…they're tricks. Yes, that must be it. His mind simply tricking him into believing that he actually saw her. Need, that's what brought it on. He needed her. Desperately, he does, needs her in a way such that nothing else in the universe would suffice to take her place.

Across the street, that's where he saw her. Well, not her, exactly, but her hair—blonde, flowing, and absorbing all the sunlight and radiating it back in the most beautiful way. It just _had_ to be her, not just some delusional fantasy _again_.

He remembers when he asked her how long she was going to stay with him. ("Forever.") And then he remembers when they had a row when she thought he was going to leave her ("Is that what you're going to do to me?") and then how he had beaten himself over even letting that idea get to her mind.

No, not to her. He'd never leave her. And there, it _is_ her, and she's running to him.

So without waiting for the stop light across the pedestrian lane to tell him it is safe to pass, he runs to her.

000

**ii.**

She laughs at Jack's joke no matter how depreciating it is to her own culture. ("Could you imagine, the Royal Family as werewolves? I mean, just look at their teeth! I swear I will never understand how you Brits think your dentistry is okay.")

They are on their way to Henrik's to buy something for her mom when Jack points out something or someone far away. She squints her eyes to focus on what he was pointing to: a person running. That man, he says, is crazy. Or perhaps racist. She knows that he sort of finds difficulty in differentiating the two. But then she knows it's the former when he explains that he's his classmate in a class in physics and that he gives the craziest of theories about time and space.

Jack shows an impression of him and she laughs again. ("People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a nonlinear, non-subjective view point, it's more like a big ball of wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey stuff…! I know, I know, stop laughing!")

But she can't because it is _just so funny_. And charming. She won't deny that that concept also came to her, but she won't say it out loud either. She thinks that he may be her soul mate in that sense, and she's not afraid to admit that she's been waiting her whole life for someone like him, but then her mom won't approve maybe if he would be not so pleasing to look at.

But as he's closing in on them, she notes that he's handsome—alluring, even, in his own way. Maybe she'd find a way to get to know him. But as of the moment, they are going to Henrik's and she _will_ find something for her mother.

000

**iii.**

He missed her. He missed her and now he's beating himself up over it. It's his own way of dealing with whatever depression overcomes him and his best mates know that, so they leave him be for the time being. He lies down on the floor, his sheets strewn about around him. His eyes are red and puffy and it is totally unmanly, but he doesn't stop. His jaw is locked and his eyebrows are scrunched together in an unattractive way, too.

He rolls over and pounds on the floor. He is angry at himself, angrier than he has ever let himself be before. He keeps brooding over what he last said to her, regret filling the whole of his body. ("You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of mine with you.") He didn't mean any of it. She knew that. She must have known that.

As to why she ran away, he didn't have an answer to.

Donna knocks—maybe kicks, but he can't tell from under the pillow—on the door loudly, tells her spaceman to pull himself together and be free to come back to earth whenever he feels like it. Whatever she's saying, he ignores it and remains pensive from under the thick covers. Eventually she gives up on him and continues to let him be. ("Well just as well because I'm not believing any of that nonsense, because, you know, you're just a long streak of nothing! You know, alien nothing!")

Well, that _does_ sting. Typical Donna, though: always means well, really, but can't find the words because she's either too dumb to know them or too occupied with her temper.

Wait, no, that's rude of him to say. Albeit his most unfortunate circumstance, he finds it in himself to give a joke. ("Is that the kind of man I am now: rude and not ginger?") But then it only reminds him of her, and how she would have laughed at it if she was still with him.

000

**iv.**

She has been searching all afternoon, entering empty classroom after empty classroom only to find it…well, yeah, completely empty. If her mom found out she'd lost one of her precious pieces of jewelry, she'd kill her. As all clichés go, she finds it in the last classroom she enters. The chain around the diamond hangs on a nail stuck on the giant chalkboard. Even from the top of the room she could see it as it's basically sparkling against the orange-hued room.

It didn't even occur to her that it was already this late. In fact, when she turns to her right, she makes out the full moon beyond the clump of trees. She breathes out and relaxes. ("Good job my mom's not here; she'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands with that thing.")

She continues to walk down the stairs of the auditorium-like classroom. It's too big, she notes. Once she's at the podium, she reaches for the diamond. On her toes and looking up, she makes out the figures of different numbers and different equations. This is a physics classroom.

And then she remembers what her friend said about a certain classmate long ago and then she can't get him out of her mind anymore. Literally, too, because suddenly he's standing halfway down the aisle, just _staring_ at her. Disturbing, but she doesn't really do anything about it.

Finally, after a minute or so passes, she gets around to speaking. ("'You all right?" To which he replies, "Yeah.")

She takes out her cell phone and looks at the time. Blimey, Mum's going to kill her if she didn't come back anytime soon. She bites her lower lip and decides not to waste her time here anymore with him. She climbs up the aisle and just before she can get through him, he grabs her by the arm. ("I'm sorry, it's just…it's _you_." And she replies, "Yeah, 's me.")

Nothing else is exchanged between them. He gives her a wistful look and then lets her go. Before she exits the room, she turns around. ("Maybe it's time you went home." He smiles and says, "And you.")

She arrives home with her mom worried, but she couldn't really care less.

000

**v.**

Compared to their last encounter, this is better. He smiles because for some unknown reason, their hands are entwined. And that unknown reason may or may not include simply sharing warmth during the windy season.

They are walking around a park and everything is just perfect. He glances down to her and finds that she's looking at him back. They share a knowing look and then both stifle something of a giggle. It's perfect.

She starts to swing their arms in between them and occasionally twirling herself with his. He'd object if it wasn't for the fact that he was too occupied with…he doesn't know, falling in love with her? Or maybe it's because he knew that they'd end up debating about it and she'd obviously win because there is possibly nothing worse than Armageddon. ("The world doesn't end when you dance!")

Or maybe it's because he simply wants to make her happy.

In any case, they're both laughing when she stops to ask him to tell her about himself. And how could he resist when she requests for it so innocently and he's in love with her and there's just about so many things she could know about him? He says something that's already at the tip of his tongue and somehow she's not so pleased with his answer. ("I need you—that's _very_ me.")

He tries to think of something else, but nothing comes to mind. Not really. And so he gives up and she's annoyed and he feels like crap and she suddenly asks him how she feels about her.

He again says something which is at the tip of his tongue. ("Does it need saying?")

He thinks she's so beautiful when she's frustrated with him.

000

**vi.**

She laughs as she recalls her not so uneventful night. He had gone and teased her about the details of his future whereabouts and she practically had to beg him to take her, too. It was absolutely embarrassing as they were at the park at the time and there were other people watching. He grinned and accepted her request. ("Oh, I'd _love_ for you to come.")

But then it's morning now and those people were all faceless to her anyway. Nothing else matters but the day he promised her. She's more than excited to get out of bed and get ready. She sneaks out because Jackie doesn't know—heaven forbid, she probably wouldn't allow her to see him anyway.

Soon enough she finds herself at some sort of clearing, a grass field that smells like something…new. She knows this is the place because on the other side there's his blue station wagon. And because she knows it's him lying down on the big trench coat.

She carefully treads the dewy grass to make her way to him. It's only when a twig snaps under her steps does he realize that she's already there with him. He grins and the distance is already quite unbearable for her so she runs, she runs to him and wraps her arms around him.

It takes a few minutes for her to realize that there are other things they should be doing, so she reluctantly lets go. She's tearing up just a tad bit and he knows why so he reaches for her hand and squeezes it. ("Not bad at all?" And she says, "It's beautiful, oh, I love this.")

She's happy with him.

000

**vii.**

He knows that there's only one other person in the entire universe who would understand him: Donna. So he tells her just about everything.

He tells her how he saw her, and how smitten he already was. He also tells her their first actual encounter and how things quickly progressed between them because, he claims, the gods have already planned for them to be together. Destiny. Or something.

Donna naturally questions him and tells him he's insane and that she thought he didn't believe in any of those gods. And she was right, he didn't. He tries to make up a new theory: of her being a time manipulator and that she actually foresaw that they were supposed to be together, so she made it a hundred times easier by creating events that would lead them to be together.

Donna raises a brow and tells him that he's going to freak this girl out. He just shrugs. ("If I believe in one thing, just one thing, I believe in her.")

And Donna smiles at this. There's something more, he knows that she can tell, so he doesn't hide it from Donna. He admits that he loves her, and Donna's smiling, so he asks why. ("Why don't you tell her yourself?")

There is a silhouette blurred by the glass door and he immediately knows it's her.

000

**viii.**

They have been perched on the hood of his car for ten minutes. Maybe more, but they don't really have a great sense of time when they're together. He asked for ten minutes, and she willingly gave it to him, basking in the complete silence without any awkwardness. He now turns to her and smiles, asks for another ten minutes.

She doesn't know what else to do but agree.

They make it through the next ten minutes now holding one another. Ten minutes, he asks, how could it be so different from ten lifetimes? Her eyes light up because she thinks he's trying to say something behind his cryptic string of words. But she's afraid because she doesn't want to get her hopes up. Not really, not when he's still…him.

Like a million summers, she agrees instead.

His eyes bear into hers. They're not as soft as when they first talked to each other. They are full of intent, and inside she's giggling because it could only mean one thing.

He loves her.

And it's a wonderful thing that she loves him, too.

And now she understands that there _are_ some things that don't need saying.

He kisses her soundly. She smiles against his lips. He goes and ruins the moment by talking. ("So the year five billion, the sun expands, the earth gets roasted…") She frowns, and then quickly smiles again because she understands. He means till the world explodes, until there's no one left who's ever known them apart.

("What do we do?" He smiles and kisses her again. "We run.")

000

**ix.**

She's happy, happier than she has ever let herself be before. Looking at herself in the mirror, she notes all of the changes since she met him. Life seemed to be so dull before; now she's practically glowing. How does that even happen, she wonders, a person so happy that they literally shine?

It's never happened to her before, so she still doesn't know the answer.

Mickey and Jackie are waiting in the living room because she told them to wait for her there. She's been planning her little speech overnight and hoped for the best when it came to their reactions.

And it pains her to admit she hoped too much.

She's never known Mickey to have the greatest timing. The moment she descends from the stairs, he's up on his feet and declaring his love for her. And then he digresses a bit as he sees her uneasiness. He asks if there's something wrong. Obviously, she thinks, she's crying!

She looks to her mom, but she's just silent in the background. ("To be fair though, in my time of life, I'm not going to do much better.") Her words don't help.

And then Mickey gets it. ("You can only chase after one of us, and it's never going to be me, is it?" She doesn't move and says, "You don't know him.")

The door bell rings. He's asking to be buzzed in from downstairs. Mickey asks if that's him; she can't lie.

000

**x.**

If Mickey had awful timing, he had worse. ("Now, be honest, first things first: how do I look?") But of course, he's not really aware of her being not in the mood. His obliviousness knows no bounds—at least when it comes to her. She's a woman, she has mood swings, and she'll ultimately get over it. That's how they work, isn't it?

She asks if she could be superwoman and blow up the whole planet. ("Well, yeah, you could. Yeah, you could do that, of course you could. But why? Look at these people, these human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet, and blinking step into the sun. There is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than—no, hold on, sorry, that's the Lion King, but the point still stands.")

The look she's giving him only slightly perturbs him. She asks why he refers to the human race like he's not part of it. He thinks for a while and then he gives off a wicked grin. He claims to be superman. ("Mmm, aren't you just?")

She doesn't get it. Here he is, asking them to be together! He's superman, she's superwoman—they _go_ together! He's ignoring the fact that there's Lois Lane, sure, but that doesn't make any of his intentions different! But he hasn't really voiced any of his intentions, so she's not really telling him anything back. But she must know. She understands him.

Is he waiting for her to say something else? Because he isn't going to. There's nothing else that needs saying, is there? He groans and asks her to go out with him. ("Okay?" "Okay.")

("So where we gonna go first?" He points to the sky. "Um. That way. No, hold on—_that_ way.")

000

**xi.**

She finds herself talking to Sarah Jane as she's waiting for him in their living room. ("Good seeing you again!" And she genuinely means it when she replies, "Yeah, you too.")

She tells her the truth because as his only living relative left, Sarah Jane at least deserved it. She tells her that she's confused. She loves him, yes, so much—maybe even _too_ much, if it's possible. And he loves her, no doubt, but he doesn't say anything. At all. And when he does, she's not sure if he means it.

He tells her he sometimes feels like he needs two hearts to hold all his love for her; she's not sure if she should cry or punch him.

She tells her all these things and she feels great and at the same time horrible. She's frustrated with him, but she can't just leave him. Not when she loves him so much.

And then there are those moments when she feels like she doesn't know him at all. Like when he thinks she gets what he's saying, but she really doesn't. It's like he's expecting her to be up in space with him and it comes out like he's out of her league. That's something that breaks her heart: feeling like he's so far away.

She asks Sarah Jane for advice. ("What do I do? Do I stay with him?" And she answers, "Yes, some things are worth getting your heart broken for.")

So when she's walking with him later, she promises him something. ("I'm never leaving you.")

000

**xii.**

The bell rings and, as usual, he's the last one to stand from his seat. He mumbles something and continues to copy notes into his battered binder. ("Right, physics! Physics, eh? Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics. Physics!")

Doctor Song is giving him _that_ look again. You know, that look the teacher gives their favorite student because they just seem so…accomplished. She's climbing up the stairs with all her folders when she stops by his desk. ("Right then. I have questions, but number one is this - what in the name of sanity have you got on your head?")

She's pointing at his drawing of a man in a box flying across the night sky. He tries to explain that he's actually just visualizing an equation this way, but nothing seems to faze her. He gives up on trying to explain and just closes his notebook. Doctor Song is still looking at him, though.

He babbles instead. He babbles until he knows she's tired of him and leaves. ("I hate you sometimes!")

He's alone in the room now. What has he achieved with this? Nothing. It's his final class anyway. He likes it, staying in the room after lectures. It's like the energy from the class lingers and he's left to absorb it all—the knowledge, too. It's weird, but he does it.

After ten minutes, he collects all his things, tosses his pinstriped blazer over his shoulder, and turns to exits the room. But something shines in the corner of his eye and he turns back to check what it is. He goes to a desk on a farther side of the room and finds a diamond, of all things!

Something as precious as this shouldn't be left lying around, he concludes. He hangs the jewelry on a nail on the blackboard and sits back at one row. The owner would come back to get it and he'd be there waiting, assuring that it gets home.

He falls asleep somewhere in between waiting and waiting, but when he wakes up, there's a girl talking about wolves.

000

**xiii.**

She's crying. They're having a row—it's natural for couples to have these. It's not like they've never fought before. But now, it's just all so…different. What does he even mean when he says he can't spend the rest of his life with her? He _promised_ that he would never leave her. So what's this?

And all her fears are returning. It's like what she told Sarah Jane, when she couldn't understand him. _What does he mean_? She screams something at him, and he's shouting back at her, and everything's just…shit.

It's just that, yeah, he keeps wanting for her to understand and she's kind of reached her threshold and she just couldn't do it anymore, all the fathoming and stuff. It was tiring on her part and he was getting all too defensive.

But now she wants _him_ to understand. ("I spent all that time trying to find you.") Ha, see what he makes out of that.

And she knows that he does make something out of it because the next second he's not shouting anymore. Not contorting his eyebrows either. He's looking at her like he's in love with her—no, he _is_ in love with her; _she_'s the one who isn't convinced of that.

Her plan totally backfires on her because, once again, she's the one trying to figure _him_ out. She thinks it's just not fair to be in a relationship like this. Maybe he deserved better than her. Maybe someone who could really keep up with him. Not someone who's like she's from a different world as him. Someone who maybe also has the capacity to have two hearts or something.

It's not spoken, but they both know it when she runs out of the door. It's all over.

000

**xiv.**

He does an awful lot of running. He uses his favorite pair of worn-out Converse shoes even though Donna bought him actual running shoes. He runs because he's not sure how to do anything else. You can't possibly screw up running because sometimes you have to run for your life—and that's something you can't just risk.

He loves the thrill. He loves to imagine so many scenes wherein there's an alien race after him or there are triangular robots who want to exterminate him. He's delusional in that sense, maybe, but it's all he loves doing.

He wonders if he'll ever find someone who could do that with him and not find him too crazy.

He's running in town, near the street mall. He's in the zone and there's absolutely nothing stopping him except maybe the sight of one of his classmates walking with a pretty girl. Weird, he thought Jack was gay.

And they're laughing! And she looks really beautiful. Not Jack, ew, but that girl. Who is she? How does she know Jack? Sure, Jack knows a lot of people, but she doesn't seem like the type of girl who hung around a man-whore like him—and by man-whore, he means it in a really nice way. He's sure he hasn't seen her in class before.

He should stop soon. If he keeps looking at her or maybe not so unconsciously following her path then who knows what might happen. He shakes his head and tries to forget seeing her hair in the sunlight or how her eyes lit up even from far away.

He doesn't see the lamp post in front of him.

000

**xv.**

She's been sitting on this bench for hours. Yes, it was cold; really, really cold. Super chilly, the night was. But she couldn't go home. Not to Jackie who'd be fussing over her. Then she'd have to explain what happened between her and him and she couldn't handle that.

She realizes that she's no superwoman; that there are so many things she couldn't even handle.

She hasn't gotten any sleep out of paranoia. Sitting on a public park bench tends to give you that—how much more if you slept there? She's glad she chose to wear thick clothes yesterday. She tries to stand. She wobbles a bit on her first steps, but she finds it easier as she's walking out of the green shrubbery-filled pathway. She's a bit dizzy as she hasn't had a proper meal for around fifteen hours.

She struggles on her feet, actually. She constantly leans onto the wall just to support herself. Other people have given her concerned looks, but she shrugs them off. They couldn't help her; not really. Unless, of course, they knew how it felt like to be so in love like she's sure she is.

Her breathing gets shallower. She probably has a fever, too. But she doesn't stray. She's determined to make her way to him—wherever he could possibly be at the moment. Is he looking for her, too? Has he been looking all night? Was he worried? Is he worried? Did he even bother?

Does he still love her?

He must because she can see him running. He's running—ah, typical of him. He looks like a lost puppy. So she thinks, he _does_ care. She's weak, but she gathers all her strength to get to him. He's on the other side of the road. Just a few meters away, so she runs.

She runs to him, and he's running to her, to meet her halfway. But only, she reaches it first, halfway, she means, and she finds that there's only a bright white light. A bright white light, and she could feel everything, could see everything. All that is, all that was, and all that ever could be.

It's killing her to feel everything. And then, nothing.

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><p>0<p>

Ha! And I finished it! As promised, here's the list of things to include in the fic:

1. Opposite timelines  
>2. Reuse of quotes in different contexts<br>3. Inclusion of names except Rose and Ten (John Smith)  
>4. An average of 250 – 300 words per prompt<br>5. One of them has to die in the end

If you want to read it in order, it's 14, 2, 12, 4, 10, 6, 8, 7, 9, 5, 11, 3, 13, 1, 15! I think. If something seems inconsistent, send me a PM.

And yeah, I'm sorry if it's confusing. I was actually hoping that the first challenge wasn't so obvious in the first part. Was it obvious that they Ten was travelling backwards? I'm not sure if if it was. Point it out for me, yeah?

And also, this is writing exercise, and so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I thank you guys in advance. :)


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